Career Development and Exploration

Career Development

Career planning refers to a process that helps explore and evaluate personal interests and abilities. The identification of short and long term career goals is complemented by a detailed action plan that helps focus on defined career goals. An action plan may contain 5 distinct steps:

Assess yourself – your skills, values, interests, and moreExplore Career Options – utilize online resources and informational interview techniquesMake a Decision – discuss your options with family, friends, and mentors and make a decision Take Action – acquire the necessary skills and competencies, get the job Reflect on the Process – was it a good decision?

The goal of an Individual Development Plan (IDP) is to help you evaluate progress toward both short-term and long-term career goals, and to identify areas that require additional attention and effort. An IDP is a living document that can serve as a guiding document for mentor/mentee discussions. Importantly, an IDP should be a roadmap for developing new skills and address concrete steps for the transition to the next stage of an individual’s career. Many different IDP formats are published. However, the majority of them feature an assessment part and the definition of short and long term goals.

Networking is a critical career-enhancing activity that leads to relationships with people who can be helpful to you professionally, now and in the future. Individuals within your professional network can facilitate career decisions and the identification of career opportunities.

Virtually, every person you meet could be part of your network … colleagues, friends, family members, etc.

It is important to realize that a healthy networking relationship should be mutually beneficial. Before you ask somebody to help, you might want to ask yourself how you could positively contribute to the other person’s development.

Regardless, you can expand your network by actively participating in any kind of local, regional, national, or international event. The opportunities to expand your network are almost endless.

Yes. You should have business cards. Business cards make you more memorable after a conference or any meeting. Only individuals with mutual interests, or with whom you have had a significant conversation, should receive your business card.

If you do not have business cards, you should print some as soon as possible. Do not worry if your contact card does not include your institution’s logo. It is important that this card includes your name, email address, and phone number. Many online print shops offer to print business cards for free.
When receiving a business card from a new contact, use the back of the business card to write down important key words from the conversation with this person. This will help you in crafting a good follow-up email to that person after you meet them. Develop an archive for the business cards. Also, you might want to try connecting with people who gave you a business card via LinkedIn.

Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a short, verbal summary of your professional background and goals. This brief pitch should pique curiosity. An individual might craft several elevator pitches that address different audiences (e.g. other scientists in your field, scientists in other disciplines and even non-scientists.

Career Exploration

The goal of graduate school is to equip you with skills that prepare you for many different careers. Such skills include analytical and critical thinking, tolerance of ambiguity, problem defining and solving, quantitative skills, presentation and writing skills, information gathering and synthesizing, and teamwork. In addition, as a graduate student you acquire deep, discipline-specific and conceptual knowledge. You can continue using the knowledge and skill base to follow an academic career track. However, a graduate degree allows you to follow any career path. To make an informed career decision it is essential to gather and analyze career area specific information that may include:

Every career path is unique. Many elements contribute to your career path.
Professional goals, personal goals, timing, identifying or creating opportunities, and perceived expectations from others are only a small selection of such elements.
The following career stories give a sense of how individuals became successful professionals in their career areas.

Informational interviews are conversations between a job-seeker and a specifically selected professional. Typically, the job seeker determines which conversation partner can help accumulate information about a specific job or an employer. The job seeker reaches out to the conversation partner to initiate an informational interview.